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A Tourist Trap with a Difference

During Easter weekend this year, I finally visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. It wasnt planned as a religious pilgrimage; it just worked out that way. My family and I were visiting my north-dwelling in-laws for the holiday, and I had a day to spare.

The City of Cleveland has kicked up a lot of noise about the museum. Its civic-boosting hype has probably scared away some of the people who would most appreciate the place. But hype and corruption are as intrinsic to rock-and-roll as the sound of electric guitars. So I went with an open mind.

Ive seen a few of the great American tourist trapstwo different Six Flags, several Civil War battlefields, the St. Louis Arch, Disneyland, Graceland, all of the Smithsonian museums, Rock City, Ruby Falls, Mt. Rushmore, and Carlsbad Caverns (to name a few). And I must say that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is one of them. But it is a tourist trap with a difference: It is a monument to the outsiders of American culture and, most especially, an institution that at least makes a start at honoring the African-American origins of our countrys popular culture.

The museum opens at a movie theater with continuous showings of Mystery Train, a made-for-the-museum documentary purporting to tell the whole sad and beautiful Rock and Roll story in a little more than 20 minutes. But the lines were much too long, so I commenced to wandering.

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